1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is for controlling passage or access while providing an electronic display, and more particularly, pertains to a gate having electronic display capabilities and a variably controllable latch.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Barriers are typically employed for limiting passage or access of attendees at sports events and/or mass audience entertainment events. At musical concerts, barriers may keep attendees from physically interrupting a performance on stage. Barriers, such as those often situated about a soccer pitch periphery, serve to keep fans from interfering with athletes during an athletic match and may serve to limit fans to predetermined safe viewing locations. At the termination of an event, it may be desirable to enable passage through the barrier to facilitate fan dispersal. Additionally, in the event of a panic or stampede of a crowd of fans attending a mass event such as a soccer match, it may be desirable to allow incursions onto an athletic field or soccer pitch by enabling passage through the barrier so as to reduce crowd over-concentrations and the injuries which oftentimes may accompany surges of crowds of excited fans.
One solution to allowing passage past a barrier has been to provide a lower receiving pit into which an entire barrier is recessed or lowered out of position, for example, by the use of hydraulics or pneumatics. Another solution to allow passage past a barrier is to include a horizontal hinge near the base of a barrier, then tip the barrier forward, thereby allowing passage by walking over the now horizontally oriented back of the barrier. In a more traditional solution, the barrier is permanently mounted and multiple traditional gates are provided. However, traditional gates typically require attendants or officials to release each gate. The first solution is undesirable because the accepting pit is expensive and a large capital investment is required. Further, significant safety concerns accompany each lowering of a barrier while a crowd is in intimate contact with the moving barrier. A hinge-to-horizontal barrier also is costly and is prone to safety concerns if tipped while in contact with a crowd. The traditional gate solution, while initially less costly, remains highly labor intensive and still undesirable from a safety stand point because each gate relies upon the cool-headedness of each live attendant performing a task in a potentially life threatening crowd incursion situation.
From a communications perspective, there has been a modern trend to provide displays of graphics, information, and even animation for entertaining and communicating with fans at sporting events and/or mass audience entertainment. Such displays may convey messages of team support, game data, song lyrics and/or advertising on the barriers. Such displays also increase the attention and entertainment aspect of telecasts or films of the event. One especially versatile display is an electronic display. Modern electronic displays often employ a modular arrangement and may vary the electronic display depending upon context. As such, they also possess the ability to convey safety instructional messages in context to fans when appropriate. It would be desirable to modify a barrier to include one or more gates, each with advanced safety and control features, while still providing an uninterrupted or uniform arrangement of electronic display continuing through closed gates of the barrier. Such a system would include controlled latching of each gate, incorporating both remote release or opening of each gate when appropriate, along with automatic context-sensitive release or opening of the gate, particularly during emergencies, such as crowd surges.